Universal Hiring Some Comic Book 'Villains'

It wasn't long ago that we were debating whether supervillains could be front and center in their own movie. And now we might get to find out! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has optioned Villains, a four-issue series penned by Adam Cogan and Ryan Cody.

Villains follows Nick Corrigan, an aimless young man who discovers that his elderly neighbor, Charlie Cobb, used to be the notorious supervillan, Hardliner. He's now living the quiet and anonymous life -- and Corrigan offers to help keep it that way if only Hardliner will teach him the ways of the supervillain. Hardliner would rather, in the words of Issue 2, "rip the kid's throat out," but he grudgingly complies, and even lends Corrigan his armor. But if there's one man you shouldn't trust to be straight with you, it's a retired supervillain, and things go sour pretty quickly. You can get a peek at the series on Viper Comics' official site. It looks like the series has been around since 2006, but hasn't quite made it to the finish line. Matt Jennison and Brent Strickland have been hired to pen the adaptation -- they're the two guys rewriting Wonder Woman, so they certainly know their way around a comic book. No director has been attached yet, but here's hoping this doesn't just get shoved into pre-production limbo. It sounds like Apt Pupil and Gran Torino by way of The Incredibles -- and that would be a movie worth seeing.